Obama makes health case in newspaper opinion article

PolyaLesova

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama argued for his proposed reform of the American health-care system in a newspaper article Sunday, saying that "no one in America should go broke because they get sick."

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Obama outlined four main reasons why his plan would benefit consumers.

The proposed reforms, he wrote, would provide affordable health-care coverage to nearly 46 million uninsured Americans, bring skyrocketing costs under control, make the federal health program Medicare more efficient and give Americans some basic consumer protections that would hold insurance companies accountable.

"This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance," he wrote. "I don't believe anyone should be in charge of your health care decisions but you and your doctor -- not government bureaucrats, not insurance companies."

Obama wrote that he welcomed the vigorous national debate over health care, but cautioned that it should be over real issues and not over "wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that anyone has actually proposed."

Obama said the country is closer than ever to achieving health-insurance reform and that there's broad agreement in Congress on about 80% "of what we're trying to do."

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